This is your backstage pass to the International Festival of Authors, the largest literary festival in the country and one of the most prestigious in the world. In our exclusive five-day workshop, you'll hear what some of the world's most famous authors and publishers have to say about writing. Working closely with your instructor, you'll have an opportunity to put these lessons to work for you by day and then attend some of the hottest literary events by night.
Examine the techniques used in great works of literature and understand how they can be incorporated into your own writing. This course will help you explore approaches to style through description, dialogue, character, transitions, image patterns, rhythm and sound.
Does a play exist without an audience? This practical course in playwriting goes beyond theory, allowing you to see professional actors performing your work. Receive instruction in the key elements of playwriting to help you write a one-act play that will be publicly performed. Experienced playwrights Glenda MacFarlane and Mark Brownell, who have extensive production credits in a variety of genres, will teach the course.
This 12-week, graduate-level workshop gives experienced writers the opportunity to workshop, rewrite, edit and hone a short story with the goal of eventual publication. Class-time will be divided between analyses of texts (literary theory, criticism, and fiction), workshopping students' work, and discussions of publishing venues for short stories.
This unique lecture-reading course features a series of lectures and readings by eight contemporary Toronto guest poets in person. Spring 2012 features an intro by facilitator Margaret Christakos, an original 40-minute lecture by one of the participating poets on the work of one of their colleague poets, and a half-hour live reading by the poet under discussion. An exchange of responses and ideas then takes place among the discussant, poet and course registrants. The class reads an assigned book of poetry each week in preparation for the evening's guest poet. Registrants compose written responses to the poetics and ideas encountered during the class and during their own consideration of the poetry being studied. Registrants may return for multiple Salons as the roster of poets changes each term.
The texts under discussion will be available at the first class for $130.
Spring guest line-up includes: Steven Heighton, Aisha Sasha John, Bill Kennedy, Michael Lista, Nicole Marcotic, David McGimpsey, Erin Moure, and Jenny Sampirisi.
Learn songwriting forms, how to avoid clichés and how to marry your music with your lyrics. Dave Bidini, of the Bidiniband and formerly of the Rheostatics, will help you discover the templates great songwriters created for today's popular songs. Short exercises will help break through writer's block to find your unique voice.
How can point of view and narrative voice be used to create writing that feels authentic? How does one write good dialogue? Through careful reading, you will learn the possibilities of language and how to apply what you read to your writing. Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, acclaimed novelist and award-winning University of Toronto instructor, will guide students through examples of today's best fiction writing. The Fall session offered access to well-known fiction writers, including Andrew Westoll, Selena Anderson, Tom McCarthy and Lynn Coady. Spring writers TBA.
This course is offered in conjunction with The New York Times Knowledge Network.
Required Reading: TBA
Dans ce cours, les étudiant(e)s auront l'occasion d'essayer différents styles et techniques d'écriture et, afin de trouver leur propre voix, produiront des textes dans divers genres littéraires. Paul Savoie, l'auteur
Este curso le ofrece a la comunidad hispano-canadiense la oportunidad de aprender las herramientas básicas de la creación literaria en su propio idioma. Son bienvenidos todo tipo de proyecto narrativo y niveles de experiencia. Los participantes aprenderán a utilizar elementos relevantes para la ficción literaria, tales como trama y creación de personaje. El curso será dirigido por la escritora mexicano-canadiense Martha Bátiz, ganadora de premios literarios a nivel internacional y cuyo trabajo se ha publicado en México, España, Puerto Rico, República Dominicana, Perú y Canadá.
This workshop is designed to support aspiring Hispanic-Canadian creative writers. Open to students of all experience levels who are working on a narrative project, it covers the basic elements, such as plot and character, of fiction writing. Award-winning, Mexican-Canadian author Martha Bátiz, whose work has been published in Canada, Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Peru, will teach the course in Spanish.
Here is your guide to the freelance newspaper, magazine and blogging market. In this course, you will learn how to generate timely story ideas and to develop query letters. You will also receive guidance on reporting fundamentals and periodical production, including interview techniques, research skills, working with editors and fact-checkers, and developing a sustainable income. Writing assignments will help you build a portfolio and, by course end, you will have the necessary skills and tools to pitch, cover and write freelance newspaper and magazine articles.
This 12-week advanced poetry workshop gives you the opportunity to think deeply about poetry and the time to develop your own unique style, voice and form. Through in-class writing exercises and readings, students will learn to articulate and actualize their artistic interests and abilities. Classes also provide workshop opportunities to constructively critique longer student work and to generate new ideas and projects. Substantial instructor and peer feedback will enrich your poetic craft and enhance your critical agility.
An exciting expansion on literary journalism, Creative Journalism uses new and provocative forms of content and style to challenge and change contemporary media. Class discussions and assignments will focus on movements, such as New Journalism, Gonzo Journalism and Immersionism, and their methods. We will examine the works of writers in this genre, including Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion, Norman Mailer, Bruce Chatwin, Susan Orlean, Hunter S. Thompson, Lester Bangs, Sarah Vowell and Carl Wilson. We will also look at the publications, such as Vice, The New Yorker, New York, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and the alternative weeklies, that support them.
Farsi-speaking students will receive an introduction to the art of storytelling in this creative writing workshop. Taught by Marina Nemat, the best-selling author of Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir and After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed, this course will teach you how to bring human experience to narrative life, whether you want to write fiction or non-fiction stories.
By exploring the nature of and diversity in memoir and related genres, you will learn how to channel your life experiences into creative writing. Course readings, exercises and instruction will stimulate your memory and guide you in the development of a unique voice and style. Thought-provoking participation by a guest writer will push you to discover your emotional truth and hone your craft. Whether you write for personal satisfaction or for publication, the essay, memoir or fiction you create will bring your memories to life.
Students will receive access on or immediately before the start date of the course. Late registrants must wait three business days for the information.
Textbook: Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir, William Zinsser.
It isn't easy to write a good column. Memorable columnists have a recognizable voice and distinctive style. Their words are clear and their arguments are persuasive. In this course, students will write and polish a series of columns. You will learn what to read for inspiration and research, how to hone ideas and the discipline to re-draft your work with an eye to creating prose that shines, even as it makes a case for a particular point of view.
